John Hardin's Alex Matthews drives to the basket during Friday's 17th District Tournament championship game against Central Hardin(Photo: Photo courtesy of Cheri Munoz)

LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the second straight year, John Hardin High School’s boys basketball season ended with a tight loss. This time, it ended what had been a perfect season.

Reid Jolly posted 30 points and 10 rebounds and hit two free throws with 27 seconds left to give Campbell County a 61-60 victory over John Hardin in Wednesday’s first round of the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.

John Hardin (35-1) – ranked No. 1 in the state by The Associated Press - was the first team in 30 years to reach the Sweet 16 with an undefeated record. Clay County was 33-0 entering the 1989 Sweet 16 and lost to Marshall County 64-60 in the first round.

The last undefeated state champion in Kentucky history was Brewers in 1948.

“Another heartbreaker loss for us,” said John Hardin coach Jared McCurry, whose team dropped its Sweet 16 opener last year to Pikeville, 72-69 in triple overtime. “Not something we expected. Give credit to Campbell County. They made the plays when they needed to. It’s one of the few times this season we didn’t execute late in the game.”

“You always (second-guess) when he hits the shot, but I called it about three seconds before that,” McCurry said. “I saw him get it and fumble the ball, and that’s when I called it. He recovered it pretty quickly, but I just saw the fumble. We still had some time.”

“A lot of people talked about (being undefeated), but we never talked about it as a team,” he said. “When we were down in games, the kids didn’t say, ‘Come on. We have to win to stay undefeated.’ …

“It is disappointing because I really felt like this team was mentally ready to do some damage up here.”

Ashland Blazer 58, Owensboro 50: The Tomcats (18-16) put together an 18-6 run in the fourth quarter to beat the Red Devils (23-8).

Owensboro led 38-35 on Isaac Humphrey’s layup with 7:41 remaining, but Ashland Blazer responded by making seven straight shots and taking a 53-44 lead on Cole Villers’ jumper with 2:57 remaining. Villers scored eight points during the run, hitting a pair of 3-pointers.

It was the first victory for a 16th Region champion since Rowan County won in 2012.

Devaunte Robinson posted 16 points and eight rebounds to lead the Tomcats. Villers finished with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists. Ashland Blazer finished 9 of 17 from 3-point range.